Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Synopsis

Tom Clancy’s most iconic character, Jack Ryan, returns to the big screen in this taut suspense thriller. When a global terrorist network is about to be activated, brilliant CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Chris Pine, “Star Trek”) has no choice but to become operational. Yet when everyone who could stop the impending international catastrophe has something to lose or something to hide, who can Ryan possibly trust?

Caught between his tight-lipped handler Harper (Academy Award-winner Kevin Costner), his in-the-dark fiancée Cathy (Keira Knightley) and a fearsome Russian oligarch (Kenneth Branagh), Jack must confront a new reality where secrets and lies are everywhere, yet the fate of millions rests on his finding the truth. With the urgency of a lit fuse, he’s in a race to stay one step ahead of everyone around him.

There are two types of action stars. There are those with almost superhuman physiques who leave a trail of bodies behind their rippling muscles like Greek gods and then there are those who basically play normal-ish people who are just really good at kicking ass. Liam Neeson falls in that second group. He looks like a former cop or an aging uncle who used to be in the marines.

While the actor actually wasn’t even supposed to be on set the day we cane to watch some of Jack Ryan’s production in London, he took a special trip to join us for a roundtable discussion that wound up lasting more than 35 minutes.

While camped out in a small bar called The White Horse Pub, we had the opportunity to spend some time watching the production of the new action movie and talk with some of the key people who made it all happen.

Beyond the fact that this is a fight scene without highly choreographed martial arts moves - instead just a realistic brawl between two dudes in a bathroom - the big take away from this clip is that Jack is still very new to the whole "field agent" thing.

This will be the fifth movie based on the characters in Tom Clancy’s books, though the story in Shadow Recruit isn’t adapted from any specific Clancy novel. Instead, it will be a compilation of facts we know about the intelligent, brave CIA analyst as he begins to get his feet wet in covert missions.

It is a new year in cinema, at least for everyone who isn’t still coked up from Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street. Unfortunately, January tends to be a dumping ground where studios release all of the films that weren’t good enough to push for Oscar consideration or big enough to release during the summer tentpole season.

Like the best TV spots out there, this one makes Shadow Recruit sound like the next great action movie, introducing the characters and the plot in a smooth and accessible manner, all while still offering explosions and up-close fighting.

At a special event in New York City, Paramount Pictures invited journalists to watch 17 minutes of the finished film, which will hit theaters early next year. Pine himself had flown in from Los Angeles to emcee the screening, and was on hand to answer questions. "Jack is really an analyst," Pine offered in his introduction. "He can get physical, but is much more comfortable behind the scenes."

December marks a crowded theatrical release line-up with studios vying for family outing dollars and the attention of award season voters. But Christmas Day just got a little less packed as Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit has been bumped to a release in the new year.

Based on a script by Adam Cozad and David Koepp and directed by Kenneth Branagh, the new film takes us back to the earliest years of the titular character's career in the CIA, working for the Financial Intelligence Unit. Working undercover in Moscow for a company owned by a mysterious billionaire, Jack discovers a terrorist plot that would shut down the entire United States economy.

Today began with some really shocking and upsetting news. Tom Clancy, one of the most popular political thriller writers of the modern era, has died at the age of 66. One of the most impressive legacies of the author's long career was the number of books he wrote that wound up being adapted into feature films, many of them starring his most popular character: Jack Ryan.

When Martin Scorsese wants to take his time editing his movie, you damn well let him, even if that means losing one of your few holiday season efforts that can be both a critical and commercial success. The Wolf Of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, had been looking like one of the fall season's best bets, but according to The Hollywood Reporter it may not be a fall movie at all.

Due to a soon-to-be-released Super Bowl trailer and a release date that's now less than five months away, there seems to be an endless number of stories cropping up about Star Trek Into Darkness, but that isn't the only franchise film arriving for Chris Pine in 2013. Come Christmas we will have the first Jack Ryan movie since 2002's The Sum of All Fears with Pine in the title role.

He’s worked to stop a rogue submarine from reigniting war between the United States and Russia, protected his loved ones from a renegade IRA faction, gotten pulled into the secret war between the CIA and the Colombian drug cartels, and successfully stopped a group of terrorists with a nuclear weapon, but it’s been a while since we’ve last seen Jack Ryan back up on the big screen.

David Paymer has become the latest actor to join the cast of Jack Ryan, the new action thriller from director Kenneth Branagh featuring the star character from Tom Clancy’s long series of spy novels. He joins a cast that already includes Chris Pine (as the titular hero), Branagh (as the main villain), Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley and Nonso Anozie.

Nonso Anozie is moving from fighting wolves with Liam Neeson in The Grey and being a merchant prince of Qarth on Game of Thrones to the world of Tom Clancy's greatest character: Jack Ryan. The British actor has signed on for a part in the new film, which will be directed by Kenneth Branagh and see the titular hero, played by Chris Pine, fighting evil in his younger days.

Kenneth Branagh's Jack Ryan seems to be getting into full swing. After being delayed for a number of years, the project is finally starting to move through the production phase. Though the movie won't be in theaters until December 2013, filming has already begun on the action blockbuster in Manhattan.

While we have well over a year before we see Tom Clancy's character Jack Ryan back on the big screen, we now have a look at Chris Pine in the role. Pine will play the lead in Jack Ryan, a reboot directed by Kenneth Branagh, which will take us back to the earlier days of the character.

After years of waiting, we finally know when we will be getting to see the next big-screen Jack Ryan adventure. Paramount Pictures has announced that they will be releasing the new movie, which is set to be directed by Kenneth Branagh and star Chris Pine, on December 25, 2013. While that date may seem very far off - it's nearly a year and a half away - the film already has some competition on that weekend...

It's been a long time coming, but the Jack Ryan reboot has finally gotten to the point where they are ready to get things in motion and actually get the movie made. While the project has spent years in development hell, there has been a number of casting announcements recently and now it is being reported that Paramount is planning to release the film some time in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The Kevin Costner comeback is finally happening, and I for one couldn't be happier about it. After starring in A&E's stunningly successful Hatfields & McCoys miniseries earlier this year, and landing the role of Pa Kent in Zack Snyder's upcoming Man of Steel, Costner has officially nabbed two more big roles-- or, actually, one role in two different movies.

Keira Knightley kicked off her career in the giant Pirates of the Caribbean movies before moving on to more highbrow fare, but she's going to be getting back to action soon, taking the female lead role in Jack Ryan. She'll star opposite Chris Pine as the title character in the reboot of the franchise that brought us Hunt for Red October

Jack Ryan needs to shake off his cob webs because it looks like we're getting closer every day to seeing him back in action. Chris Pine is attached to play the hero, Kenneth Branagh will direct and play the villain, Keira Knightley, Felicity Jones and Evangeline Lilly are being courted to play the female lead, and now it would seem that the Tom Clancy creation has found his newest mentor.

For years Chris Pine sat alone as the only cast member attached to the upcoming Jack Ryan reboot. While the actor has been attached to the project since October 2009, it has undergone so many delays that it has never been able to pick up any other stars. That is finally starting to change, however. Last month it was revealed that not only will Kenneth Branagh be directing the movie...

Nearly four months after it was announced that Branagh would be helming the still-in-development Jack Ryan reboot, the actor/director has taken an interest in playing the film's main villain. The project has been in the works for quite a long time now, shepherded by producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and David Ellison, but now it seems that the project may finally be coming together.

Though he's not set to return for the sequel to his big hit Thor, Kenneth Branagh is apparently not done stepping into the director's chair behind very, very big movies. According to Variety, he's been selected as the new director for the next movie about Jack Ryan, the character created by Tom Clancy who will be revived by Chris Pine

I'm starting to believe that we may never see Jack Ryan on the big screen ever again. A new installment in the franchise has been whispered about since 2009, but since then the production has faced roadblock after roadblock, including scheduling issues for star Chris Pine with the Star Trek sequel - which is only now just starting to come together - and rewrites to the script. But while you may think that the rough water is behind the boat, think again.

Though he's never won, nor has he ever been nominated for and Oscar, David Koepp is one of the most powerful writers in Hollywood. Though he has his fair share of duds, he was still the man with the pen behind blockbusters like Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, Angels and Demons, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Needless to say, the guy's brain is tapped into exactly what mainstream audiences want. Hence why this news makes a whole lot of sense.

Chris Pine was supposed to play Jack Ryan, but of course he’s also Captain Kirk. The Ryan script isn’t really ready and whether or not Trek’s actually it is, well by now it ought to be ready, so they’re shifting focus to getting Pine back in Enterprise hot sea

Baldwin never names Harrison Ford but it seems pretty clear that's the actor he's describing-- Paramount apparently owned him money after an earlier project fell through, and they figured the easiest way to make good on their promise was to ditch Baldwin, cast Ford as Jack Ryan

The late winter/early spring comment makes sense given what we know about the progress of Star Trek 2, which is in the early script stages and would definitely not be ready to start shooting until sometime next year

Clearly the new film would have to move away from the 80s/90s Cold War plots of the first films, but it is kind of hilarious to have Ryan on Wall Street, which somehow feels like another kind of 80s throwback

Chris Pine owned Star Trek. He came out of nowhere with his performance as the arrogant but extremely likeable James T. Kirk. He threw out lines like nothing, pulled off the comedy (both physical and dialogue-driven), and more importantly was able to own the role

Anne Thompson is reporting that Paramount is actively awaiting the first draft of a new screenplay called Untitled Tom Clancy Project. And yes, it's a Jack Ryan story. Is anyone interested in seeing more stories along the lines of The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games?

Every time I do another story on Hollywood’s cyclical quest to make another Jack Ryan movie, I feel like I have to explain who he is. The thing is, while people know Hunt for Red October and all the other movies the character has appeared in